Macro Trend 5: Broadcast Control Is Now Self Scheduled
In 1998, two guys called Jim and Mike started trials of a new technology in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In January 1999, they exhibited at the CES show and announced the first device would ship on March 31st that year (despite having many months left of work remaining to complete the device).
Because the date was a ‘blue moon’, the staff code named version 1 as Blue Moon.
On March 31st 1999, the TiVo Blue Moon signified the end of broadcast control and a fatal blow for the TV advertising industry.
Not that anybody realised.
Eagerly, Thomson and BSkyB partnered with TiVo and Phillips and Sony both started their own versions. Very few people raised any concerns at the time about possible negative impact on media industries because the devices were in the hands of few – mostly those who had buckets of cash.
No risk perceived – disruption quietly grew.
The media industry was still highly dependent on sponsorship via advertisements and gradually became aware of losing revenue if viewers adopt TiVo-like systems in large numbers. Knowing this, some countries took protectionist measures, especially when media was already struggling due to poor viewing figures.
For example, the government of Singapore banned TiVo, citing the potential adverse impact on the local media industry if usage were to increase. Which it did. The Singapore government faced extreme difficulty in regulating the use of TiVo, as individuals were bringing in sets from overseas, over-joyed at the ability to finally control their own experiences.
All was not lost though as TiVo started to create a number of advertising solutions intended to reach the viewer that fast forwards through ads. The company FX was the one of the first to use ‘PVR resistant’ adverts that appeared during the series ‘Brotherhood’ in 2006. The Deputy MD of Fox International Channels, Jason Thorp, said at the time: “There are a whole host of issues that broadcasters and advertisers are currently facing, and about to face, that are going to irrevocably change the business. A creative response will be the only solution to all of them.”
The ‘creative response’ in their case was to find ways of forcing people into doing something they didn’t want to do. Fast forward a few years and the stories of such ‘creativity’ have quietly been shown the back door. Forcible relationships are never productive. The see-saw of control is never healthy if heavily stacked against one side.
According to research, 13% – 40% of all viewing on Sky Plus in the UK is time-shifted. 3 in 10 people watching drama currently self-schedule. These figures rise continually – primarily as people increasingly trust that the technology isn’t going to fail and ‘lose’ their beloved show. Companies who have the real data on PVR usage rarely let on what is really happening. Conservatively my opinion would be to double the research stats at least.
Yesterday morning, the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying was broadcast on BBC at 6AM and the presenter started the show by congratulating people for having heard their early morning alarm clocks. Why would we necessarily have to watch something at the scheduled time anymore? I doubt many did.
But this isn’t just about television. This is about experience in general.
Control of experience has moved to being jointly owned by the content holder and everyone else. Content that is created by citizens can be consumed by others whenever and wherever we, the public, want. This now also holds true for corporation created content too.
Once we were limited as to what device we had to use but now we are increasingly able to do what we want, on any machine and a screen. This trend means that we are more accountable for our experiences than ever before. We can control how we enjoy, to a greater extent.
The ability for every single one of us to become journalists has redefined who influences society. Sure, many millions of blogs have few readers (and are mostly all about the author rather than anything else), but a collection of citizen blogs eclipse the entire ‘professional’ news industry and the influence it once enjoyed. The Twitter feed from ‘BreakingNews‘ currently gets you news within seconds of events happening.
Free.
Constantly.
On any machine and screen.
The paradigm shift has spread across all industry. In the world of commercial communications, for example, the mindset had been similar to the broadcasters of old. Lets send out our message and try our best to make people listen. But now its about people also having a say in what they want to listen to and when, and where.
The paradox is that people often don’t know what they want. But this is not an excuse to bypass the need to understand.
Thus I attest that self schedules replacing broadcast control is more than the ability to skip annoying adverts. It signals a redefinition of user experience. This goes down to root level, placing joint accountability at the centre of value creation. Different rules for a different game – this time with more than one side.
